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Welcome to 2009 and give thanks if you made it through 2008. Now that the 2009 year is here, it is time to think about some New Year’s Resolutions. centre{source} thought about how we might help you with the difficult task of beginning and sticking to your new resolutions, so, with that in mind, as we are a web design firm, we have provided helpful websites for the most common New Year’s Resolutions.

Get Organized: Who would not want to clear the clutter? Organization saves time, adds productivity, and, most of all, makes life easier. What happens, though, when you have a full-time job at a web design firm, diminishing social life, and a family to help manage? www.Cozi.com might have a solution. It’s a free organizer for your entire family to use. Started by veterans from Microsoft, Expedia, and Amazon, the helpful features include tracking appointments and lists, coordinating home and work schedules, and sharing favorite memories along the way. It’s a very popular application, and you can view this Adobe Flash movie to learn more.

Lose Weight: If you’re like many of us, after the holidays losing a few pounds gained from all the extra eating sounds great. But, losing weight is sometimes as difficult as nailing a perfect 36 on the ACT or getting reliable technical support. But, here are two sites packed with many features offered for free. Create an account on sparkpeople.com and begin the process. These sites have many effective features, and if you can afford to take the time to become involved and track your diet, they can turn into an interactive resource. I won’t lie, as a web design firm, fitday.com could use an improved UI (user interface), but the tools, like pre-set calorie inputs for many foods are helpful. If you just want to track your habits online, www.joesgoals.com is also worth looking up. If you want to add nutritional supplements or need additional fitness advice to meet your goals, bodybuilding.com is hard to beat.

Quit Smoking: Being raised from a family of smokers in Nashville, I was drilled from a young age to never start smoking. However, a common resolution for many is to finally break the habit. Quitmeter.com helps provide a meter that is very simple to use. If you were ever curious about how much money you could save by quitting, this simple application is for you. All you do is input the date you quit smoking, how much you generally smoked, and see the results. Let’s say you quit January 1st 2009, and usually smoked eight cigarettes a day; by December 1st you would have saved yourself $395.85 and 2,639 cigarettes!

Get your Finances in Order: If you need help in 2009 keeping your finances in order, mint.com offers free tools that can help. Their site proclaims their tools can help you lower your interest rate, show how much your spending, budget for the future, and even spend less eating out. There is even a nifty iPhone application that one can download for free. The site is also determined to stay free, stating, “The fees that banks pay us for introducing new customers allow us to keep the service free for our users. We’re committed to staying free for everyone, whether or not you ever act on one of our savings recommendations.”

Help others: I have been volunteering as a “big” brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters for over a year now. It’s been a wonderful experience, and if you ever though about helping others, check out volunteermatch.org.  It allows you to search for opportunities near to you. I searched for opportunities near our web design firm in Nashville, and found over 200 results. If you are interested in an opportunity, sign up for free and the site provides the information for you to reach out. Also, SHOUTAmerica, a community united to solve the America healthcare crisis, is well worth a visit. Remember, doing good by helping others comes full circle.

centre{source} wishes you the best with your 2009 New Year’s Resolutions and these helpful websites and applications will hopefully help you succeed.